Stipple Debuts New Self-Serve ‘AdWords For Images’ Ad Platform For Publishers And Brands

Stipple, a technology that allows you to tag people in images no matter where they reside on the web, has launched a platform today that serves as an ‘AdWords for Images.’

For background, Stipple’s technology allows publishers to tag a person in a photo on the web, enter contextual information such as a Twitter name or Facebook name and then anyone can see their most recent social updates as overlays on that picture. But Stipple also partners with e-commerce sites to provide a way for each photo to show exactly what piece of clothing the person in the photo is wearing — to show you who makes it, how much it costs, and where to buy it. And it allows you to “Want” it (save it to look at later) or “Shop” for it via two overlay buttons right on the picture itself.

Now Stipple is giving brands a way to identify their photos and create advertising campaigns around the products they want to sell inside the photos. When people mouse-over products in photos, the image reveals the brand, pricing information, and a link to purchase.

On the advertiser side, brands tag a photo with product information, and Stipple’s technology will automatically syndicate that information to all online copies of that image on the web. Brands then set up pay-per-click (PPC) or pay-per-engagement (PPE) campaigns around the products they wish to monetize. And Stipple offers real-time data and analytics on each campaign’s performance.

Rey Flemings, Stipple’s founder and CEO, explains that the problem is startup is trying to solve is providing accurate information about objects inside of photos. He says, “Basically, we want to do for images what Google did for text search by making images on the web discoverable by machines and indexed.”

And the new platform is helping accomplish that goal by providing a self-serve platform to connect publishers and brands over monetizing and categorizing these images. In fact, clothing designer BCBG is already using Stipple’s platform.